Sri Lanka’s new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Tuesday said he would reopen an investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday terror attacks. Dissanayake who was appointed president on Sunday following his victory in last weekend’s presidential election made the remarks while paying a courtesy call on the head of the Catholic Church Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith. “The new president assured us that the truth on the Easter Sunday attacks would be brought to light,” Ranjith said.

Ranjith has been critical of the investigation into the attacks at star-class hotels and churches during the Easter Sunday mass, leaving nearly 300 persons, including foreigners, dead. Blaming both former presidents Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe for the incident, Ranjith slammed the investigation as a political cover-up of the attacks carried out by local jihadi group National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ).